Thanks, it could be seen as such. This particular area is modeled after a non-residential area, such as an industrial park, in contrast to the prior chapter, which depicts a common type of working class neighborhood that would have residences above 1st floor businesses open for foot traffic. In fact, nearly everything in the first chapter is from a hodgepodge of references from my actual neighborhood. As for the palette shift, it also indicates an afternoon-to-night transition, which is shown in the chapter interlude screen.

At some point in time, I will probably do some write ups on the details of the backgrounds. Some of them flesh out the script and puzzles. Many of them just add character to the setting.

Great work, as always. I love the colour scheme. That door looks gorgeous. The only problem I have has to do with the complex patterned fence. It seems like the perspective is off. The darker green shade should be top-left, not bottom right. Or maybe I'm "mentally rendering" it in the wrong way.

Actually, you're right. The posts immediately adjacent to the fence clearly show a visible top, left, and front plane, and my fence was showing front, right, and bottom. Fixed it. Thanks a ton, wouldn't have noticed it otherwise!

Here's the next background, by the way:

The blank space next to the compass is for inventory, by the way. I've been cropping out the items so as not to reveal too much about the puzzles of the game. (I also may selectively not post some backgrounds if I feel they be too revealing.)

"Backpack Contents" will likely be the way that the bottom portion of the screen will be referred to in the manual. When it came to character design, giving the player some type of bag was a priority, as I wanted to avoid the magic pocket inventory concept. (Even though, at times, an item may be larger than the backpack, nothing so far couldn't hypothetically be carried in it, sticking out--although we don't depict it as such.)

Backpack was chosen as the type of bag to reinforce the character's age (high school). If he were an older character, I may have gone with a satchel, or a duffel bag for a more athletic character.

These little details are big for me. When I joined Pyronaut, even, I replaced various sized hearts and shield icons with various sizes of first aid gear (all clearly shown with a first-aid cross) and actual armor (along with a small line intended for the manual about the planet's creatures having raided the ship's crash site like raccoons, explaining why they would drop human supplies when defeated). In fact, the other day, I was playing The Legend of Zelda (for the first time, surprisingly), and my wife asked me "did you kill the dragon yet?" To which I replied, "Yeah, then I ate its heart. Now, I'm stronger." Although that interpretation was likely not intended, I much prefer games like Survival Kids (and I think, Morrowind, IIRC), where the items dropped by an enemy (meat), could make sense story-wise.

Orange is still close enough to red that it could probably violate the convention. (I guess the white cross may have it safer though - EDIT: no it's not, and in hindsight I'm wondering if any cross is safe even if blatantly not red since precisely that any cross does the job means it's probably enough to be muddling the trademark)

M_Tee wrote:

There's a missing tile in that bump in the parking slot (or whatever it's supposed to be called).

Keen eyes, looks like a tile did get pasted over. Thanks for pointing it out. Updated the file. Apparently they're called parking blocks, by the way. I had no idea.

Oh, and further reading actually shows that using the red cross in video games for medkits has been an issue (despite it being pretty standard since at least Doom 1). That's interesting. May or may not affect our designs (currently designed in orange, but in-game, they flash through all four sprite palettes, which usually feels predominantly purple.) Anyway, not looking to spend time on Pyronaut now. Will keep it in mind though. Definitely not going back to floating hearts though.

In the United States, Johnson & Johnson owns the + trademark for first aid products, and the American Red Cross owns it for all other purposes.

The standard symbol for a first aid kit is a white cross on a green field. It looks like $20 on $1B, with 8x8 pixels, the cross occupying the center 6x6 with 2-pixel-wide strokes. Another symbol that may fit in better with video game aesthetics is a red heart on a white background.

In the United States, Johnson & Johnson owns the + trademark for first aid products, and the American Red Cross owns it for all other purposes.

The standard symbol for a first aid kit is a white cross on a green field. It looks like $20 on $1B, with 8x8 pixels, the cross occupying the center 6x6 with 2-pixel-wide strokes. Another symbol that may fit in better with video game aesthetics is a red heart on a white background.

Yeah. They've been cracking down on that, lately. The Steam versions of Doom 1+2 are both "censored", for example. Which is stupid. Luckily, I have my original DOS disks.

I don't understand their logic here, to be honest:"Let's make a universal symbol for medical help, and let nobody use it!"

except the konami logo is a lot more elaborate. Imagine if someone own the rights to a red colon - i think that translates into how owning a + with a colour that has a practical function sounds to me. I get they have the rights, though. If it's rational, is debatable.

Does anybody own the traffic cone? I know someone invented it. Should they in that case crack down on Kraftwerk for doing an aesthethical rendition?

I chose it because it's also a cross. It's just slanted with the center cut out, the left and top sections joined, and the bottom and right sections joined. I agree that these changes make it more inherently distinctive.

But marks become distinctive through use. Most trademarks are limited to one field of use. Others are so famous that they qualify for dilution protection; try making a "Coca-Cola" computer mouse and see how far you get. The legal status of Red Cross and Olympic marks is similar to that of famous trademarks.

WheelInventor wrote:

Imagine if someone own the rights to a red colon

"Red colon"? Must...resist...goat...

WheelInventor wrote:

i think that translates into how owning a + with a colour that has a practical function sounds to me.

The + used for adding is rarely red. UPS owns the color brown for delivery trucks.

WheelInventor wrote:

Does anybody own the traffic cone? I know someone invented it. Should they in that case crack down on Kraftwerk for doing an aesthethical rendition?

Kraftwerk might have a case against VideoLAN, the organization behind VLC media player. But then it might not, as Kraftwerk arguably abandoned the traffic cone logo after its third album Ralf and Florian. None of the albums in The Catalogue have the cone on the front. Trademarks live only as long as they remain in use.

I chose it because it's also a cross. It's just slanted with the center cut out, the left and top sections joined, and the bottom and right sections joined. I agree that these changes make it more inherently distinctive.

I never realized until you posted it that it is indeed a cross.

Quote:

"Red colon"? Must...resist...goat...

And i must become better at remembering some words bear double common meanings in english

Quote:

WheelInventor wrote:

i think that translates into how owning a + with a colour that has a practical function sounds to me.

The + used for adding is rarely red. UPS owns the color brown for delivery trucks.

Sorry, i could've been more clear. I didn't mean + as a literal plus, but as a common variation of the symbol for christian religion (or, within christian symbolism, salvation).

Quote:

WheelInventor wrote:

Does anybody own the traffic cone? I know someone invented it. Should they in that case crack down on Kraftwerk for doing an aesthethical rendition?

Kraftwerk might have a case against VideoLAN, the organization behind VLC media player. But then it might not, as Kraftwerk arguably abandoned the traffic cone logo after its third album Ralf and Florian. None of the albums in The Catalogue have the cone on the front. Trademarks live only as long as they remain in use.

I've thought about that, too. Striking similarity.

Well, how about the white flag? (Flag of peace/surrender). Some private body could theoretically own the rights to that, but it holds a function more important than the function of private or national property, so it wouldn't be rational. I think the red cross could be argued being such a case, too, as it helps save lives. A red cross on a white background is a lot more functioning as a signal than pretty much any other colour on white.

The advice to avoid rights conflicts by using red on white is very sound, nontheless. Just like avoiding doing tetris variations, for the time being.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum